Freaks
Most of the films in the silent/early talkie era of cinema can trace their roots to vaudeville. Most actors and writers got their start putting on the comedic slapstick antics of the stage. In 1932, filmmaker Tod Browning decided to craft a film from a very different stage: the freakshow. Based loosely on a short story called "Spurs" (I haven't read it, but the wiki entry is bonkers!), this movie is pretty much just an excuse to translate the freakshow to the screen. Just as casting directors reaped talent from the vaudevillians, Browning cast his film straight out of the sideshow. Genuine circus "freaks" were given the chance of a lifetime to act among a handful of B-movie stars of the day.
The plot of this film is as flimsy as you may guess, but the message is resonant to this day: Judge not, lest ye be judged. Even still, you can enjoy this film even if you ignore the plot as the real-life performers put on their show. Possibly the most astounding shot is when Prince Randian, the Living Torso (a man with no arms or legs) lights and smokes his own cigarette with a match.
I show this film nearly every year in my Anatomy class because many of the "freaks" display actual pathology that we study in class. Congenital dwarfism, Marfan Syndrome, microcephaly, hirsutism, sacral agenesis, and conjoined twins are all on display in a non-judgmental (except by the villains, of course), genuine fashion.
This movie was on my original 365. You can read what I said ten years ago here.
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